Guide: How To Completely Uninstall AMD Graphics Drivers

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Today we would like to address an issue that many users experience when switching between AMD drivers or switching away from AMD graphics. Unlike NVIDIA, AMD does not provide a clean installation option. These leftover AMD driver remnants can often cause issues when installing new drivers or trying to roll back to older ones.

A method that is often recommended in various online forums is to use the program Driver Sweeper. However, the primary site which hosted Driver Sweeper, Guru3D, has ceased to host it. It has been speculated that the reason for this is that the newer versions of Driver Sweeper contain adware, since Phyxion (the makers of Driver Sweeper), no longer provide a stand-alone version.

Regardless, there is a better way than using Driver Sweeper, which gives the user complete control over the uninstallation process. This method is covered below:

WARNING: Do not use this method if you have an AMD processor/chipset. This guide is only for users who have Intel processors and AMD graphics. Using this method on an AMD chipset will cause vital chipset drivers to be deleted and create system instability.

(Any time “AMD/ATI” is mentioned in this article, it refers to all files and folders containing the words “AMD” or “ATI”)

1. Go to Control Panel, and click on “Uninstall a Program”

2. Click on “AMD Catalyst Install Manager”

3. Click on “Express Uninstall” in the AMD Catalyst Install Manager and go through the uninstallation process, then reboot the computer.

4. Click on the Start Menu, type “Show hidden files and folders” into the search box, then press “Enter”.

5. Make sure you are on the “View” tab. In the “Advanced Settings” box, scroll up to “Files and Folders”, and then the subfolder “Hidden files and folders”. Click on “Show hidden files, folders, and drives”.

Keep in mind, in steps 7-11, there may not always be an AMD or ATI folder in the directories mentioned, but these are all the possible destinations for AMD and ATI files/folders to be found.

6. Navigate to C: on your computer and delete any folders labeled “AMD” or “ATI”.

7. Navigate to C:Program Files (as well as C:Program Files (x86) if you are running a 64 bit operating system), and delete any AMD/ATI folders.

8. Go into C:Users (make sure you can see hidden files and folders) and go into C:UsersyournameAppDataLocal and delete any AMD/ATI folders. (yourname should be replaced with the username for the current Windows user)

9. Do the same in the C:UsersyournameAppDataRoaming, again replacing yourname with the username for the current Windows user.

10. Do the same as in Step 8 in C:UsersDefaultAppDataLocal

11. Do the same as in Step 9 in C:UsersDefaultAppDataRoaming

12. Click on the Start Menu, type “regedit” into the search box, then press “Enter”.

13. Navigate to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINESOFTWARE, and delete any folders labeled “AMD” or “ATI”

14. Inside the SOFTWARE folder, scroll down to Wow6432Node. Click Wow6432Node and delete any folders labeled “AMD” or “ATI”.

15. Navigate to HKEY_CURRENT_USERSoftware and delete any folders labeled “AMD” or “ATI”, then reboot the computer.

Congratulations, you have completed a thorough removal of AMD graphics drivers and software.